I’m still Alive, I update my Twitter.com/MikeBeckham daily. Just not had any energy to blog lately, although that is likely to change.

Australia is a Commonwealth, our head of state is the “Queen of Australia” aka Queen of England. Queen Elizabeth is a nice woman by all accounts, but does not live here. She does not represent us (adequately at least), we do not owe her anything, she does not owe us anything.

Our deal with her and the UK has been beneficial to us both, now its time to move on. Bob Brown, Greens Senator and my ideal Prime Minister has introduced a bill…

Senator Brown has introduced legislation that would force a plebiscite asking Australians a “simple yes or no” question about whether they wanted a referendum on the republic issue.

Under the Greens’ proposal, the question about whether or not to hold a referendum would be put on the ballot paper at the next Federal election.

Why now you may ask…

Senator Brown said support for a republic had grown since Australia last voted on the issue 10 years ago.

“The most recent poll on whether Australians should be asked about whether or not they want a republic showed a two to one majority in favour of that opportunity being given,” he said.

The Greens leader described as “nonsense” the argument from the monarchists that a holding plebiscite was tantamount to living in 1930s Germany.

“Australians are a mature nation who can well vote on their own affairs,” he said.

“I think there should be more questioning opportunities for Australians in telling their politicians to do more, not less.”

Why not wait until the Economy picks up or Queen Elizabeth relinquishes the thrown?

“The idea that everything should stop while there is an economic recession has cobbles on it,” he said.

“We keep evolving and maturing as a society and we need to keep our view on the long-term good of the country as well as the short-term good.”

It was also unfair to say that a referendum should be deferred until Queen Elizabeth II died. “I don’t entertain that view at all,” he said.

I agree, it’s lame and nonsensical to argue that we should stop everything when things go south, especially on something as important as the identity of our Nation.

The time to have an Australian Head of State, one that lives in this Country and can more suitably represent us has come. The exact details on what kind of Republic we need are largely irrelevant until the public gets a chance to vote, then we can sort out the details. You’d think we would want to keep things simple, no need to fix something that ain’t necessarily broken with respects to Governance. A figure head like our Governor General may be all that’s required.

What I do know, is to be taken seriously we probably need to become 100% Australian, not 99.99%. It’s not good enough.

I have been a user since 2007, and only now over the past few weeks has it gotten any attention and I am completely over hearing about. I’ll continue using it, as it is useful and fun but I don’t need to be told by news anchors who know nothing about it, how fantastic it is.

John C. Dvorak a noted technology columnist has written an on point article about why it is useful, and not just a fad. It may be a fad with the media – however in the long term for end users it could be a long term service.

‘The Nine Ways to Use Twitter’ is the article and two of my favourites are…

Public Address System: Because I produce a couple of streaming podcasts that have no official start times, I use Twitter to announce the fact that a streaming show is going to begin. It’s a bit like using Twitter as a public address system.

Crowd-sourcing: I also use it to poll people and for crowd-sourcing information. I can ask my Twitter followers a question that I cannot find the answer to, and within seconds someone will know the answer or have a link to it.

Of course for some of these to work, you need a lot of followers. Otherwise its just a nice way of keeping in touch. Just like Facebook, but for those of us who don’t want application invites.

Need someone else to follow? @mikebeckham is the way to go…

Catch my “twitterview” with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Tuesday, March 17 at 12 noon on Twitter.

We’re going to attempt to conduct a full interview exclusively on Twitter — complete with the 140-character limit!

Whose stupid idea was this? It makes me almost want to stop using the service, but then how will I keep up to date with Martha Stewart?

I signed up for Twitter and posted my first Tweet on January 26th 2007, long before it became a hang out for spam accounts and journalists tweeting about their last bowel movement.

I like stalking celebs as much as the next person, in fact I do on Twitter but when middle aged women from Arkansas start jumping on Twitter to message their favourite Fox News personality you know it may be nearing time to move on.

I think that time is fastly approaching for Twitter. Oh Well at least Facebook is still there to kill some time and inappropriately poke your male contacts.

It also has a really nice looking music video as a bonus.

Andy Richter is reuniting with Conan O’Brien, signing on to serve as announcer for Mr. O’Brien’s new incarnation of “The Tonight Show.”

Mr. Richter and Mr. O’Brien entered the pop culture landscape together in 1993, with Mr. Richter serving as sidekick to Mr. O’Brien when Mr. O’Brien took over from David Letterman as host of NBC’s “Late Night.” Mr. Richter left “Late Night” in 2000 to focus on acting.

On “Tonight,” Mr. Richter will not be a nightly desk-side presence as he was on “Late Night.” He will, however, participate in both live and pre-taped comedy bits.

“Andy is one of the funniest people I know, and we’ve maintained a close friendship since he left ‘Late Night,’” Mr. O’Brien said. “We have a proven chemistry that will be an incredible asset to ‘The Tonight Show.’”

What’s more, there’s a practical reason for Mr. Richter to join the “Tonight Show” team. “He owes me $300,” Mr. O’Brien said.

Mr. Richter was the last non-musical guest on the final edition of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” last week.

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien begins June 1st on NBC and June 2nd on The Comedy Channel in Australia.